Spicer Group’s Russ Beaubien Retiring, Again
Longtime Spicer Group Engineer Russ Beaubien, P.E., C.F.M., is about to enter into retirement, again. After 21 years of providing various engineering services for clients across Michigan, Beaubien decided it was time to spend more time enjoying his other passions. Ironically, most of his work-related friends and clients are probably unaware that he had another major career prior to joining Spicer Group.
“Growing up in Tawas, I was always spending lots of time in the woods and on the water,” Beaubien said. “After graduating from high school, I attended Delta College to become a Conservation Officer.”
After a year of post-high school studies, Beaubien decided college just wasn’t for him yet. He spent four years driving a pop truck for a family friend’s business making deliveries across Iosco, Arenac, Ogemaw, Alcona, and Oscoda Counties. He also worked as a gas pump attendant and mechanic at his father’s garage, Fletcher’s Texaco in Tawas City, during and after high school and college.
“In 1974 I took a job at St. Luke’s Hospital in Saginaw transferring patients from surgery to recovery rooms,” Beaubien said. “I also had a friend who was a police officer in the Village of St. Charles, and they had a volunteer ambulance that I took a ride in.”
Russ Beaubien, right, participates at a school’s Emergency Medical Services Week by providing tips on accident prevention to students
That ride hooked Beaubien on the paramedic career and over the next two years he continued expanding his knowledge in that arena. Soon after, he took an EMT class at Delta College and passed with the highest grade in the class. He was invited to be an assistant instructor at Delta and taught advanced first-aid and advanced rescue.
In 1976, he helped orchestrate and implement Delta College’s first paramedic program. He graduated from that same program in 1978 and became a full-time paramedic at Bay Med where he was soon promoted to Department Supervisor.
Beaubien was responsible for coordinating all paramedic and rescue activities throughout the Bay County Region and worked closely with local fire departments and law enforcement agencies. He says his job was very stressful and demanded that he be very procedural in commanding activities during paramedic and rescue activities.
“I was often the first person on the scene of incidents, and I had to quickly assess the situation to ensure the proper agencies were notified, and I had to give a clear understanding of what they needed to expect when arriving so they could be best prepared to assist,” Beaubien explained.
Russ Beaubien, center, directing a vehicular rescue training exercise for Bay City Fire Department.
He said he’s a stress and excitement junkie and he is proud to have assisted in many incidents that saved peoples’ lives. Unfortunately, he witnessed events that still haunt him, but he explained as a first responder you have to put those events behind you and keep moving forward to successfully make the next rescue or apply first aid when needed. One of his most memorable rescues was a crash on Christmas Eve at the Beaver Road overpass over I-75.
“It was a terrible snowy night and a couple lost control of their car on the overpass and it slid sideways into the guardrail,” Beaubien said. “The guardrail somehow broke and came all the way through the car trapping the couple in their seats while they were dangerously close to the edge.”
He said he did everything possible to keep the couple warm and calm while he helped the rescue team cut the car from the guardrail and carefully remove the hunk of metal from the front seat while trying to minimize further injury.
“The couple were injured pretty bad, but we finally got them out and to the hospital where they fully recovered. I think that was quite a Christmas gift to them and their family,” Beaubien said.
While working at Bay Med he also pursued and received his bachelor’s degree in Communication from Saginaw Valley State University. The adrenaline rush of rescuing people ran through his heart until the spring of 1992 when he retired at the age of 41. He said when he started at Bay Med they had three ambulances and around 3,000 calls a year. When he retired, they had six ambulances and around 13,000 calls a year.
“Every year my wife and I would take two vacations, and I wanted to pursue a new opportunity and wanted to pursue a new degree at a school that was near water, snow, or mountains, or a combination of those,” Beaubien said. “We went out west to various schools and then one weekend we ended up in Houghton in the Upper Peninsula for a Guts Frisbee Tournament.” (Do an internet search on the sport. It’s pretty amazing.)
He said Houghton had the water, the hills, and the vast winter sports he and his wife enjoyed doing, and in May 1992 he applied and was accepted to Michigan Technological University. He received his bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering by 1997, and at the same time helped bring 911 to Houghton County.
Living in Houghton, his wife was busy as a nurse at the hospital and they had a son and a daughter. He needed to find a job and applied at Spicer Group. He said he had a good interview but didn’t get the job.
Russ Beaubien with his in-laws after earning his degree from Michigan Technological University.
“I figured I better make myself more marketable as a 40-something-year-old engineer so I pursued my master’s in water resources engineering, which I received in 14 months,” Beaubien said. “Soon after, I met former Spicer Group president Dale Deibel at a fall recruiting session in 1999 and applied again at Spicer Group and was hired on as a design engineer in January 2000.”
He immediately began work on one of Spicer Group’s biggest projects at the time—Carrier Creek in Eaton County. He transitioned into an essential team member for the company, providing NPDES Phase II assistance and became the municipal engineer for Saginaw Charter Township, which required him to do storm water reviews to ensure new construction developments adhered to all local ordinances. Additionally, he handled a significant amount of storm water calculations for Spicer Group’s site development, and he was also a key member in creating the Saginaw Area Storm Water Authority (SASWA).
Russ Beaubien working on a project with co-worker, Kelsea Sutton, E.I.T., C.F.M.
“One of my more memorable projects was the Saginaw River Dredge Disposal Site,” Beaubien said. “The project took a lot of work and required a significant amount of coordination with several parties. It was satisfying being part of a project that I think helped secure a major part of the local economy by allowing ships to navigate the river safely.”
Beaubien said he was fortunate to work on many successful projects and got to meet a lot of great friends and clients over the years while assisting them with their storm water engineering needs.
“It’s been great working for a company that has your back,” Beaubien said. “Guys like Shawn Middleton and Ron Hansen helped me a lot with engineering judgment and talked me through a lot of problems that arose with various projects. And both former company presidents Dale Deibel and Don Scherzer always had open-door policies and were always willing to talk about project successes and issues.”
“It’s been great working for a company that has your back”
One thing Beaubien has found unique is the amount of knowledge he has learned from upcoming engineers and how he has adopted their problem-solving skills. Beaubien has also been a big part of Spicer Group’s student recruiting over his tenure here and has recruited some very talented staff members.
“I loved to do the recruiting for Spicer up at Michigan Tech,” Beaubien said. “I met a lot of great people and could spend time visiting with the professors. There are a lot of young engineers here at Spicer Group who I first met up at Tech and got hired in here over the years. I will miss going up there, but we have a good team going up there now.”
Beaubien says he’s going to miss going out into the field, working side-by-side with clients, and the office interaction with his teammates. But it is time for him to start doing more outdoor recreation and spending time on the water and in the woods.
“It’s time for the younger engineers to take over,” Beaubien said.
Thank you Russ for all of your dedicated efforts and contributing to Spicer Group’s success. Your positive attitude and strong work ethic will be missed.
